This is the final book in the Alex Rider series and although I haven’t kept up with the whole series (I read probably the first 4 or 5), I couldn’t not read the final installment (I will also watch series finales of tv shows I haven’t watched in a while.) Not having read a few books in the middle was absolutely not a problem. The main characters-Alex, Jack Starbright, Mr. Blunt, Mrs. Jones, and Mr. Smithers (is that his name?? The fat guy with all the gadgets.) are all still there. And of course, the biggest character of the whole series-Scorpia, the group of evil geniuses/mad criminals whom Alex has bested many times over.
This book really had it all. I’m not sure if this has been present in the last few books, or just saved for the ending, in a rather fitting way, but I felt like in addition to the super duper fun and exciting action adventure, there was a strong storyline of deep emotion, a level of maturity that I don’t recall from earlier books. It felt appropriate since this is the final book, and Alex either needs to die or get out of the spy game for once and for all. And, as the reader knowing it is the final installment, you sort of feel that anything can happen in this book.
Like with a good tv series finale there were some nice callback to the past, some surprise revelations, and a solid ending. It was actually pretty moving and the ending stayed with me for quite a few days afterward. You’ll notice I didn’t even go into the storyline because it practically seems secondary-in a nutshell Scorpia has a mastermind plot, Alex gets sent to the middle east to gather intelligence at a school. Actually Scorpia’s mastermind plot was pretty cool and long range thought out. And I don’t know how much this has happened in the other books, but in this one the reader was privy to Scorpia’s entire plan, which made quite a difference in how you viewed many of the events.
All in all, a rock solid awesome ending to a terrific series.
